Exodus
by uwsbitch
Summary: An explosion at Chicago Med leaves Jay Halstead desperate to have info on his brother, Will.
1. Chapter 1

The members of the Intelligence were hanging out at Molly's. Jay, Kim and Kevin were sharing a table, laughing telling funny old stories about their time in patrol. Members of Firehouse 51 had just arrived and were making their ways inside, taking seats at the bar counter and ordering drinks. Cruz said hi sat beside Jay, catching up on the on-going conversation.

The place was filled with laughter and normalcy for minutes. But in a second the sound of laughter and loud happy conversations were replaced by a muffed sound of explosion and a shake, that looked like a small earthquake had just hitted Chicago. Because of this second everyone's face now were confused and scared. Questions like "what the hell was that?" were being asked by everyone and clearly no-one knew anything about it.

"Turn the Tv!" Someone yelled.

Changing channels and putting on the News, the headline made them all stay in shock. "Explosion at Chicago Med". There were no images yet, only the reporter talking about how a possible bomb had just exploded in the Hospital's E.D, up to now no survivors were found.

Almost in sync, everyone's phone started to buzz with the same text, demanding them to return back from work and go straight to the place were the bombing happened. In the same sync they all stood up and made their way to the doors, each and everyone taking a moment to look at the sky filled with smoke coming from the hospital's direction.

Jay felt his body sober up as he stared at his phone while trying to make sense of the words he had just heard. Chicago Med's E.D were bombed. Will was at Chicago Med's E.D. No survivors. _Yet. _His brother was smart, but how do you run from a bomb? From a roof falling in your head? Will would probably be trying to help others. Maybe he was at another floor. Apparently the E.D suffered the hardest hit, the other floors were in serious trouble, but they still existed. So Will could be trapped in the I.C.U -

"Jay! Jay! Jay!" Kim was yelling his name trying to get his attention. When he finally got out of trance he was in, he could see that he was almost alone in the place. Only him, Kim and a few civilians were there as Hermann were closing the bar. Kevin was already long gone.

He got up in a jump, grabbing his coat and dialing Will's phone. In the moment that he walked out of the door he could see the smoke coming from Chicago Med direction, the realization that was necessary a huge explosion, a huge bomb to make a smoke like that made shivers go down Jay's spine. All he could hear in the moment was the sound of Will's voicemail. He stood in doorway for a while, before Kim touched his shoulder and nodded towards her car.

Kim was now driving as Jay and Kevin were at their phones. Kevin was talking to Voight, who already was on his way to the scene and Jay was trying to the 12th time talk to Will, getting more and frustated every single time the Voicemail messenger came up. He had to fight the urge to throw his phone by the car window. "I'm pretty sure he's okay." Kim said once, but the look on Jay's face told her that wasn't words that were going to calm him down.

"Hi, this is Will Halstead and I –"Jay let out a grunt when he listened to that again. He was already getting sick of Will's voice, his serious tone in the tape. He wanted anything other than that. Anything that could proof that his brother was still alive.

As they were getting closer to the scene, they could see firetruck's lights and police surrounding the perimeter. An isolation tape were already being setting in place, Kim parked her car and the three of them showed their to the officer in the place, the man's face were a mixture of horror and confusion. The media were already in there, pushing microphones into their faces. "We just got in here. How the hell we're supposed to know anything?" Jay wanted to shout at their faces, but he decided that to run to his brother was the most important thing right now.

Soon enough he was in the place where the E.D. were. Were.

He stood still in his place, cellphone in his ears and "Hi, this is Will Halstead…" ringing his ears. However, this time he listened 'til the end. He just could not move. He didn't have the strength to move. That couldn't be real.

The place that he had went to so many times were now a pile of concrete and twisted iron. The smell was almost unbearable, the dust were still on the air making hard to breath and the heat coming from a few fire outbreaks were making so hard to believe that were life behind it all. He thought about taking a moment to suck it all, but he thought that his brother didn't have the time. Will was behind all that.

In the moment he started to run an arm caught him, pushing him back. He was screaming in protest when he saw that Voight was the one holding him back, in the moment his brain only could think about making a good excuse to why he should be allowed to help. Before opening his mouth, his boss spoke:

"I know he was in there, I know you want to help and if it's necessary you will move every single rock out of the way so you can find him, but you can't. You'll only hold the people who can help back, you understand that?"

Jay nodded.

"There's a tend already in place. We gonna start working to find whatever we can about today. Do you think you can be a detective right now?"

Jay nodded one more time. He took a deep breath and tried to calm down. He still held hope that Will would somehow walk out of the pile of rocks, maybe bruised and hurt, but alive and breathing. Maybe bleeding but with a beating heart.

But the scene reminded him so much of a war zone, that he was still was having a hard time to believe that it was Chicago, that his brother was under all these ruins. So he did the only thing he could, the thing that he had been doing since he heard the news, dialed his brother's phone.

"Hi, this is Will Halstead and I can't talk right now. Leave a messenger and I'll call you back as soon as I can." That was silence for a second. "Please, be fine. Be safe. Don't leave me by myself. I need you. I love you little brother."

He turned his phone off and went to work.


	2. Goodbye

Everything was dark. No light could be seen anywhere or were his eyes closed? Well, Will was trying his hardest to open his eyes, but only darkness were there, so he decided to close them and stop worrying about it right now.

Will Halstead was lying on the ground, surrounded by rocks, bended irons and dust. The E.D was barely recognizable, only a few places reminded what that place once were. The nurse station was gone, shared glass were everywhere, beds and equipments were torn and broken into pieces all around.

The only lights were from the police cars and firefighters outside. The building was too unstable and they still weren't able to get in to search for any survivors. Will didn't know these informations.

He couldn't remember really well what happened. He remembered someone screaming and a force pulling him off the ground and making him fly in the air, his back hitting a wall and then lights out. Maybe it was a bomb. It was probably a bomb, he thought.

His whole body was in pain, the only thing that the pain didn't get were his legs, but not being able to feel his legs worried him more than any pain ever could. Still, nothing compared to the ringing in his ears. The noise was unbearable and made him scream, although even his scream was impossible for himself to hear.

After a few minutes he gave up and accept his death. He could not listen to the firefighters and every time he tried to shout and scream for help the air that would get in his lungs were filled with dust, making him cough and get weaker. Thinking that the pressure of the bomb causes severe damage to lungs, he decided it was better for him to stop while he still had functioning lungs and pray for God that someone would find him.

So he just waited for a miracle. He prayed that someone would notice him, someone would save him.

His breathing was getting harder and harder every second and his mind started to wander. Did we looked as bad as he felt? He was dying, praying, bleeding and screaming to be saved, to mercy, but it felt like he was alone in there. So he thought about all his friends in the E.D: Connor, Natalie, Maggie, Ethan, April...Were they okay? Were they like him? He hoped they were better than him, that they were alive and well. That they would come out of ruins and ask about him. By the way, would anyone miss him? Lately he was so far away from everyone that he doubt someone would actually miss him.

He hoped that Nat could forgive him and actually stop to think about him in times to come, not in the strange person that she knew after their almost wedding, but in the one he was in the beginning. What the hell did he do? "I screw up and I'm so sorry." He would like to say this worlds if he could say anything to Natalie, but maybe now it was too late.

He prayed that Jay was not there. That Voight had send him somewhere else, he didn't want to Jay to see his body being taken off the rocks. That couldn't be the last image Jay had of him. He wanted his brother to think about the good times they had as kids, the laughing at Molly's and even the fights they had along the years.

While he was thinking he noticed the pain had stopped, and he knew that was a bad sign. The ringing in his ear was still driving him mad and ever since he regained consciousness all he wanted to do was to pass out again so he could be in peace.

"I'm not afraid." were the first words he said, as talking to an old friend.

So he remembered all the people he ever loved. Took they smiles and made them his. Lost in the dark he thought about the sweetest lie. He swore Natalie he would never lie again, but if she didn't mind he would like to live in the lie that he would survive. But he couldn't take the pain anymore and the desire to slip away and leave the whole world behind all getting way too strong.

That's when something started to fall harder on his face. It was so intense that was hurting him, but well he was already in a bad shape. So he decided to try to open his eyes one more time.

With a struggle he was able to open only part of it, but enough to see a flashlight besides him. He still couldn't hear anything, so he just prayed that someone could hear him instead.

He started to scream for help, but his voice sounded like a hoarse. Crying, he took a deep breath and gave it one more try. For a moment he felt like his lungs were about to explode and that the noise in his head was going to make it explode, but he kept screaming. Nothing in particular. He just screamed until he gave up.

Gave his body way to the exhaustion and decided to let it all go, maybe his friends and family could forgive him someday, but tonight he just needed a break.


	3. If tomorrow never comes

The second shift from CFD was already in place, searching for victims. As soon as the firefighters considered the place safe, they walked in, yelling and paying close attention to any signal of life.

The first person they found was Natalie Manning, she was fine, awake even, only a bruise in her head showed that she was in the middle of an explosion. In safety, she was taken outside the hospital, asking about her fellow doctors and nurses.

Maggie and April were unconscious and Maggie's leg was in a strange position, certainly broken. April was in the opposite side with some bruises on her arm. They both were taken outside in stretches.

Ethan was found trapped in the beginning of what looked like the center of the most damage. It was a pile of concrete and twisted iron. Ethan had a pole right through his abdomen. It some time for the firefighters to cut it off, but he was eventually stabilized and took outside.

Outside the hospital, in a tent, CPD were gathered around discussing what had happened.

"Was it a single event? Was the person alone? Was it planned beforehand? Will be more of it? I want to know now!" Voight was yelled with all his lungs.

Ruzek, Atwater and Hailey were sitting on his left as Kim and Antonio were by his right, all of them were in computers. Jay was impatient looking at nowhere with his hands covering his face in an isolated part.

"Check the footage from every place surrounding the Hospital check for any suspicious activity, anything". Voight kept saying as Ruzek, Hailey and Atwater started checking.

"You two". Voight said pointing at Kim and Antonio. "Go talk to the bomb squad, see if they can give us any information". They both got up and made their way outside the tent.

"Jay! Jay! Are you with us?" Voight finally asked.

Everyone in the room stopped for a moment and waited for the detective reaction.

"I'm sorry." Was all Jay could say before storming off and going outside.

Coming off he could see paramedics bringing Maggie out of E.D's remainings. So Jay ran as fast as he could into them, looking for any news on his brother.

"Please, please - Does any of you have any news of Will?" The paramedics were taken by surprise. They were particularly new and they still haven't learned anyone's name, so they kept running towards the ambulance as Jay followed them.

"Describe him, please."

"Red head, taller than me, has a cross tattoo on his finger, he's probably wearing red scrubs. He's a doctor." Jay said hopefully.

"Sorry, still didn't see anyone with this description. I'm sorry."

They said as carried Maggie to ambulance, closed the door and left Jay alone.

He made his way back and asked the other paramedics and firefighters, or anyone that was coming out of the building, the exact same question. "Have you seen my brother Will?". Each negative answer cutted him like a knife.

He was this close to walk into the building and look for his brother himself when Hailey called his name.

"Any news?" She asked.

"No, they still haven't found him. I don't even know if they're looking for him! What if he's bleeding somewhere? Every passing -" He said in one breath.

"Calm down! I'm sure they are looking for everyone. You staying here harassing every firefighters isn't going to help."

He took a deep breath as tears formed in his eyes.

"I can't lose him."

"Let's hope for the best."

She hugged him and he rested his head into her shoulder.

Inside the hospital, the firefighters were searching for victims in the wreckage mountain. They yelled and waited for a call back, it was in the third "FIRE DEPARTMENT CALL OUT" when they heard a scream coming from beneath them.

It was a scream filled with pain and agony. It only lasted for two or three seconds, but it was enough for them to point a location and focus their search in a certain area.

They took out of the concrete asking for help from other firefighters 'til they found an unconscious, bruised and blood bathed Will Halstead.

The firefighters came out holding Will on their arms and placing him on the ground as paramedics came to their encounter. On the second Jay recognized his brother red hair he ran faster then he ever did. He only stopped when he came closer and actually saw the state Will was in.

There was a huge cut crossing his chest, his left eye was swollen as a cut right beside his upper right eye kept bleeding. His left leg was crushed. His clothes were torn. There was no color on his face.

The male young paramedics putted two fingers on Will's neck and said: "Can't find a pulse." He looked at his partner and at Jay. "I'm sorry. Black tag him."

In that moment the ground fell out of the Jay's feet. His own heart stopped and when he saw the paramedic taking a stand he holded him by the arm and pleaded.

"You can't do that to him. You can't, do you understand?" He was already crying. "Not only because he's the only family I have, but because he's a doctor. An amazing doctor. He never ever gives up on any of his patient. He fights for them 'til the end. If it was any of you he wouldn't do this. Please. **Please. Help him. Save him." **

The paramedics looked at each other for a second.

"Bring a gurney! Let's take him to the hospital."

Relief was all Jay could feel in the moment, still the tears poured down his face as he whispered on Will's ear.

"I'm gonna fight for you 'til the last second, you fight for yourself as well."


	4. Now

"Bomb squad says it was probably a homemade bomb, the damage was huge but not that large, that all we will know 'til forensics come back with results." Kim said walking into the tent with Antonio by her side.

"Any leads on the cameras?" Voight asked Adam and Kevin who still were trying to cover the footage.

"No yet. Couldn't find any pattern or anything suspicious" Kevin said.

Voight sighed.

"Any idea what the bomb was made of?"

"Gotta wait for the forensics." Antonio said.

"I want that forensics to be made in record time, understand me?"

"Yes, sir." Kim said. In the moment she was walking out of the tent Hailey walked in with sadness written all over her face. The whole unit got in silence waiting for words.

"They...They found Will." She was almost crying. "Doesn't look good. They took him to the hospital, but they wanted to black tag him."

They all were in silence. Suddenly the pressure on the unit was bigger than before, if possible. Still, everyone stopped what they were doing for a minute and allowed each other to look at the ground and to digest the information for an instant.

"He's not dead?" Voight asked.

"No, but-"

"Then we don't grief him yet. We do our work. We get whoever did this and get Will and all the victims' justice! " Voight said and they all nodded.

"I've found something." Announced Adam and the team gathered around his computer. "Male. Late 40-ties. Check it out. Last night he parked his car in front of this store, got out. This is a video from another angle. He surrounded the hospital, only returned two hours late."

"So this was probably planned beforehand?" Hailey asked.

"I'm running face recognition, seeing if I can get any I.D." Adam said after he nodded to Hailey.

"Right now he's our number one suspect." Voight announced.

Hailey took a deep breath.

"Will's injuries were compatible with a high order explosives."

"Great, we have somewhere to start." Voight said. "Kevin and Antonio go check any place legal or ilegal that sells TNT, C-4, Semtex, nitroglycerin, dynamite, anything like this"

The duo walked out of the room as Hailey took her position in front the computer.

The drive on the ambulance was the worst moment in Jay's life. Nobody knew the extent of Will's injuries, but lungs were in a bad shape, abdominal hemorrhage and a concussion were clear. It was bad in general.

After Will was loud in the ambulance, Jay's body went in automatic. It was as if he was just a muppet following someone's order, without any thought. A stranger in his own body. When he sat down on the ambulance he tried to grab Will's hand, but the paramedic got in front of him and started to make chest compressions.

Maybe Jay's mind couldn't take the scene in front of him and started to wander to the moments he shared with his brother.

When he told Will about his first girlfriend, the hug they shared before Jay left to go to war. "Be careful" Will told him back in the day. When he came back and had the biggest fight he ever had with Will 'cause he just couldn't understand how Will acted like nothing had happened and the Will left him. He hated Will so much back in the day, but then again, he never hated him, was only mad.

He was taken off his thoughts when the ambulance stopped by the Hospital's entrance. Doctors came by his brother encounter, he knew they would've wanted to black tag him again, but one more time he wouldn't let them. He would do what was necessary.

"Blast lung, probably internal bleeding. Pupils unresponsive and Glascow 3" The paramedic said leading the stretcher out of the ambulance. The doctor was a young woman, her curly hair in a bun, with hazel eyes. She looked like she had been running for the last hour, and she probably had.

"Take him to trauma 2. Who are you?" She looked at Jay.

"His brothers, He-"

"Does he have any allergies. Anything that I should know?"

"No. He-"

"Ok. Move him on my count and get his brother out of here." She said when they made into the room.

"I'm not leaving!"

She sighed. It was a long night; those who by-passed the initial triage on the field were coming to the hospital, not to mention the ones who already were a patient in Med in the time of the bombing. Gladly, only a few were in rough shape, and previous to Will, one patient arrived in critical condition. Today she had seem more blood, head concussions and broken bones them she had in all her 3 years of being an E.D doctor and she really didn't have time to fight with family members.

"Then stay by the door. Don't cross it."

Jay nodded.

"X-Ray in place, clear"

"Blast lung confirmed!" She said looking how Will's lungs were almost forming a white butterfly in the screen. "100% oxygen, Need a thoracotomy."

She started to put a chest tube in him, both sides. Jay couldn't help but look away. One of the nurses was with a ultrasound on Will's abdomen.

"Belly full of blood too."

"Need to get him into a CT" A skinny young man said. He was wearing scrubs like the the other doctor while he pointed a small flashlight on Will's eyes.

"Give him EPI, we need to rise his heart rate!"

The female doctor grabbed the stapler and started to close the wound on Will's chest, stopping the blood coming out of it. It was poorly made, but they didn't have time for stitches.

Jay was almost losing it, in the doorway he could see everything. The bleeding, the running, the noises coming from the monitors. He closed his eyes and prayed.

"Jay! Jay!" He heard someone call his name and he opened his eyes to see Natalie running towards him. He hugged her tight, when she opened her mouth to ask about Will she heard screams and people rolling off the hospital bed with Will on it. "Oh my God..."As all she could say.

Jay took a deep breath and watched as Will disappeared on the distance, being rolled by the doctors further into the hospital.

He fell on the ground, his legs failing him. He didn't want to fall apart in front of Natalie, but all he could do was sob and hide his face while doing so.

Natalie had her eyes on the place where Will vanished. She couldn't look at Jay falling apart or how her friends were being treated in rooms near by.

"The last time I saw him, he was getting on a bay to treat a patient. I watched him on the outside as he sat down besides the patient and talked to him...Jay!" She screamed his name 'til he stopped crying and looked at her. "Jay! Will was closest to the blast. He flew by during it. I think the bomber was his patient."

Jay took a moment before he jumped out of the floor and called Voight saying the exact words Natalie told him, passing the phone to her. She told him everything she could remember. Clothes, skin color, everything.

When she returned the phone to Jay, Voight told him that the description gave by Natalie matched their suspects and the whole team were already looking into it. The only thing Jay could do was to ask his boss to keep him updated.

When Voight turned off the phone, Burguess walked into the room with perfect timing, holding a file in her hand.

"Patrick Stamp. 51 years old. Wife was admitted at Chicago Med three weeks ago and passed away. She had a difficult heart condition, signed DNR and died a few hours after coming in." The whole team already knew where this was going. "Will Halstead was her doctor."

So, Will was the target. However, why to take an entire hospital for only one doctor. It would be easier to shot Will or something, so why a bomb? That were the thoughts in Voight's mind.

They started to discuss the possibilities on the why and how Patrick could've had the access to the kind of materials when Adam stepped out of his computer getting everyone's attention.

"This is a post on a forum in deep web, where P.S. announced that tomorrow they would pay." He explained while the team gathered around the screen. "He was encouraged by someone under the name Exodus."

"I want this Exodus's location NOW!" Voight shouted and the team started to move.

**Hello, everyone! Thank you for the reviews and happy easter for everyone! Hope you enjoy it. **


	5. Waiting for you

Jay stood by the floor 'til a new streacher came and nurses and doctors made him get up from it. Walking without any coordination or destination in mind, he let Natalie hold him by the arm and guide him to what looked like the waiting room.

On his way to it, he saw people holding their heads trying to stop bleeding, a doctor screaming in one of the bays, nurses running. A line of people in stretchers waiting for some exam. For the first time, he took a moment to stop and catch up to the room surrounding him.

When he breathed, he could smell the blood, sweat, tears, dust in the air and that made breathing harder than it should. His hands were numb and when he looked at it he saw how bad he was shaking, all the adrenaline had left his body a while ago, just the mess remained.

Jay knew he was never good at waiting and sitting around. Ever since he was a kid, teachers told him he should learn how to sit down, and told his parents that he was hyperactive, sometimes he would act without really thinking about the consequences and his mom always told him "Jay, think before you act." everytime he screw up. Voight would say that he was reckless sometimes, he would say that he always followed his gut. But for some reason, today he just wanted to disappear in this hospital chair.

Sit down and forget that world existed. That there weren't a man fighting with a nurse half of his size about the lack of information on his wife. That the lady by his side weren't crying her eyes out pressing the phone close to her ears, just like he had a few moments ago. So he took another deep breath and leaned on the chair, now looking at the ceiling as tears fell down and the image of Will's red hair disappearing in the hallway played on repeat on his mind.

He couldn't tell how long he stood there, but it was enough for his neck start to hurt so he adjusted his position just in time to see Adam and Kim walking towards him.

Jay tried to dry his tears with his hands the best he could, but he suspected that it only made it worse. Not that he cared about it right now.

"Hey Jay." Said Kim, in a sweet tone, as her eyes looked sad and apologetic at him.

"Hey man." Adam's expression matched hers, as if trying to bring some comfort for him. But as he sat there looking down at the both of them he felt smaller than ever. "How's Will?"

It took a moment for Jay to find his voice so he could answer, and he was glad that Adam and Kim didn't try to push him.

"I don't have any news." He said looking down, hiding his face just in case any tears fell down.

"He will walk out of this one, man. I'm sure." Adam said putting a hand on Jay's shoulder. And although Jay wanted nothing more to push it away, say it was almost burning his skin, he let.

"We have a lead." Kim saying getting Jay's full attention. "Patrick Stamp, we think he might had done it out of revenge because his wife died a few weeks ago at Gaffney."

Kim, spoke slowly and Jay knew that she only did that when she was bracing someone for an impact, for a hurtful information.

"Will was his wife's doctor." She finishes with her a blank expression, waiting for Jay's reaction. For an outburst, yelling or anything, but it never came. Instead, Jay sank further into the chair, hiding his face as Kim looked at Adam.

"We think that he blew himself up, but we are looking for some clues about a guy that calls himself exodus." Adam added, but Jay still didn't look at them. "We gonna question some people that were in the E.D at the time, so if you need anything just call us, okay?"

All they got was a small nod from Jay.

When Jay felt like they were away enough he got up from his chair, determined to get some news on his brother. For the first time he noticed that Natalie had left him by himself in the waiting room, and he didn't really know where he was going. So he wandered hallways alone, looking through every door, searching for anything. Until he found Connor's familiar shape running.

"Connor! Connor!" Jay yelled.

Connor stopped in his tracks and ran back towards Jay, his face was full of worry.

"Connor I need you to find Will. He was in a bad shape, I think they took him to CT or something."

"Jay! Do you have any idea of what happened?" Connor stared back at him. "I took a day off…"

Jay's stomach fell, wanting to tell Connor how it was all for Will, how unfair it was that his brother, once he woke up, would've had to live with this guilty even though it was none of his fault. And that was nothing Jay could do to prevent that.

"They took me off the case, I still don't know anything." Jay lied. "But please Connor he was really bad-"

"I'm gonna look for him and try to help, ok?" Connor said and then he was back running, leaving Jay alone in a crowded hallway, his heart racing once again, feeling the restlessness on his body and the urge to go back to work, to do something more than sit and wait.

He walked out of the hospital calling Hailey.


End file.
